The Living Road

1	Con Toda Palabra 4:29
2	La Maree Haute 3:24
3	Anywhere on This Road 4:37
4	Abro la Ventana 4:03
5	J'Arrive À la Ville 5:58
6	La Frontera 3:02
7	La Confession 3:45
8	Small Song 2:26
9	My Name 4:17
10	Pa' Llegar a Tu Lado 4:32
11	Para el Fin del Mundo O el Año Nuevo 4:23
12	Soon This Space Will Be Too Small 4:45

Barnes & Noble

Perhaps the only thing that could keep Lhasa de Sela from being a star is Lhasa herself. With a breathy, emotive voice that cuts to the bone, a hip, pan-cultural sensibility, and an offbeat musical vision, her appeal to the Lucinda Williams crowd seems obvious. Except that Lhasa sings in Spanish, despite being born in New York State and based in Montreal (her second album, The Living Road, presents four songs in English, and a few in French). And she devotes as much time to her painting and circus career as to music, it seems --- her head-turning debut, La Llorona, appeared back in 1997. She is, in short, a less-than-conventional artist. All the more reason to savor The Living Road, whose comet-like rarity is mollified by a more-than-generous running time. Listen a few songs at a time -- you never know when her next album might be coming. Just a few songs are sufficient to draw listeners close to Lhasa's world. Unconventional instruments such as marimba, theremin, ukulele, and bass clarinet float around a thudding percussion section for an effect that recalls the later works of Tom Waits. Some songs invoke smoky tangos, others Mexican ranchera, others still the accordion sigh of European café music. Either way, the aching catch in her voice, the dissipated sadness of her lyrics -- from "La Confession": "I'm not afraid / To say that I betrayed you / Out of pure laziness / Out of pure melancholy" -- are a portal to a gloriously moody place. One listen to this dreamy travelogue, and the reasons behind Lhasa's stubborn trajectory come clear; it's the journey, not the destination, that nourishes The Living Road. Mark Schwartz

All Music Guide

Everyone knows that when you release your debut album, consisting of an assortment of sophisticated and worldly numbers performed in Spanish, and that album goes on to make a far bigger splash worldwide than anyone expected, the only sensible course of action is to...run away and join the circus? That's precisely what Lhasa de Sela did following the success of La Llorona: she joined with other members of her family, which always had a nomadic streak in it, and toured around Europe as part of a circus. Upon her return, she got to work on The Living Road, an album about travel, whether it be wheels upon the road, or through life itself. It's hard to say whether the experience of life on the road was the catalyst for the broadening of the writing this time out; there are songs in Spanish, French, and English this time out, but all three are languages that Lhasa was immersed in beforehand. Musically, it's a natural follow-up to La Llorona, drawing from many of the same traditional styles and blending them with more modern instrumentation into a very seamless, sophisticated, and sensual mélange, one that thankfully never tips over into the pretentious, condescending, or hokey. And then, of course, there's the real star of the show: Lhasa's voice, which is never short of gorgeous throughout. It's a fantastic follow-up release; hopefully, it won't mean another five-year wait while she hides out under the big top. Sean Carruthers